<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER LI </h2>
<h3> LONDON, September 20, O. S. 1748. </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: I wait with impatience for your accurate history of the
'Chevaliers Forte Epees', which you promised me in your last, and which I
take to be the forerunner of a larger work that you intend to give the
public, containing a general account of all the religious and military
orders of Europe. Seriously, you will do well to have a general notion of
all those orders, ancient and modern; both as they are frequently the
subjects of conversation, and as they are more or less interwoven with the
histories of those times. Witness the Teutonic Order, which, as soon as it
gained strength, began its unjust depredations in Germany, and acquired
such considerable possessions there; and the Order of Malta also, which
continues to this day its piracies upon the Infidels. Besides one can go
into no company in Germany, without running against Monsieur le Chevalier,
or Monsieur le Commandeur de l' Ordre Teutonique. It is the same in all
the other parts of Europe with regard to the Order of Malta, where you
never go into company without meeting two or three Chevaliers or
Commandeurs, who talk of their 'Preuves', their 'Langues', their
'Caravanes', etc., of all which things I am sure you would not willingly
be ignorant. On the other hand, I do not mean that you should have a
profound and minute knowledge of these matters, which are of a nature that
a general knowledge of them is fully sufficient. I would not recommend you
to read Abbe Vertot's "History of the Order of Malta," in four quarto
volumes; that would be employing a great deal of good time very ill. But I
would have you know the foundations, the objects, the INSIGNIA, and the
short general history of them all.</p>
<p>As for the ancient religious military orders, which were chiefly founded
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, such as Malta, the Teutonic, the
Knights Templars, etc., the injustice and the wickedness of those
establishments cannot, I am sure, have escaped your observation. Their
pious object was, to take away by force other people's property, and to
massacre the proprietors themselves if they refused to give up that
property, and adopt the opinions of these invaders. What right or pretense
had these confederated Christians of Europe to the Holy Land? Let them
produce their grant of it in the Bible. Will they say, that the Saracens
had possessed themselves of it by force, and that, consequently, they had
the same right? Is it lawful then to steal goods because they were stolen
before? Surely not. The truth is, that the wickedness of many, and the
weakness of more, in those ages of ignorance and superstition, concurred
to form those flagitious conspiracies against the lives and properties of
unoffending people. The Pope sanctified the villany, and annexed the
pardon of sins to the perpetration of it. This gave rise to the Crusaders,
and carried such swarms of people from Europe to the conquests of the Holy
Land. Peter the Hermit, an active and ambitious priest, by his
indefatigable pains, was the immediate author of the first crusade; kings,
princes, all professions and characters united, from different motives, in
this great undertaking, as every sentiment, except true religion and
morality, invited to it. The ambitious hoped for kingdoms; the greedy and
the necessitous for plunder; and some were enthusiasts enough to hope for
salvation, by the destruction of a considerable number of their fellow
creatures, who had done them no injury. I cannot omit, upon this occasion,
telling you that the Eastern emperors at Constantinople (who, as
Christians, were obliged at least to seem to favor these expeditions),
seeing the immense numbers of the 'Croisez', and fearing that the Western
Empire might have some mind to the Eastern Empire too, if it succeeded
against the Infidels, as 'l'appetit vient en mangeant'; these Eastern
emperors, very honestly, poisoned the waters where the 'Croisez' were to
pass, and so destroyed infinite numbers of them.</p>
<p>The later orders of knighthood, such as the Garter in England; the
Elephant in Denmark; the Golden Fleece in Burgundy; the St. Esprit, St.
Michel, St. Louis, and St. Lazare, in France etc., are of a very different
nature and were either the invitations to, or the rewards of; brave
actions in fair war; and are now rather the decorations of the favor of
the prince, than the proofs of the merit of the subject. However, they are
worth your inquiries to a certain degree, and conversation will give you
frequent opportunities for them. Wherever you are, I would advise you to
inquire into the respective orders of that country, and to write down a
short account of them. For example, while you are in Saxony, get an
account of l'Aigle Blanc and of what other orders there may be, either
Polish or Saxon; and, when you shall be at Berlin, inform yourself of
three orders, l'Aigle Noir, la Generosite et le Vrai Merite, which are the
only ones that I know of there. But whenever you meet with straggling
ribands and stars, as you will with a thousand in Germany, do not fail to
inquire what they are, and to take a minute of them in your memorandum
book; for it is a sort of knowledge that costs little to acquire, and yet
it is of some use. Young people have frequently an incuriousness about
them, arising either from laziness, or a contempt of the object, which
deprives them of several such little parts of knowledge, that they
afterward wish they had acquired. If you will put conversation to profit,
great knowledge may be gained by it; and is it not better (since it is
full as easy) to turn it upon useful than upon useless subjects? People
always talk best upon what they know most, and it is both pleasing them
and improving one's self, to put them upon that subject. With people of a
particular profession, or of a distinguished eminency in any branch of
learning, one is not at a loss; but with those, whether men or women, who
properly constitute what is called the beau monde, one must not choose
deep subjects, nor hope to get any knowledge above that of orders, ranks,
families, and court anecdotes; which are therefore the proper (and not
altogether useless) subjects of that kind of conversation. Women,
especially, are to be talked to as below men and above children. If you
talk to them too deep, you only confound them, and lose your own labor; if
you talk to them too frivolously, they perceive and resent the contempt.
The proper tone for them is, what the French call the 'Entregent', and is,
in truth, the polite jargon of good company. Thus, if you are a good
chemist, you may extract something out of everything.</p>
<p>A propos of the beau monde, I must again and again recommend the Graces to
you: There is no doing without them in that world; and, to make a good
figure in that world, is a great step toward making one in the world of
business, particularly that part of it for which you are destined. An
ungraceful manner of speaking, awkward motions, and a disagreeable
address, are great clogs to the ablest man of business, as the opposite
qualifications are of infinite advantage to him. I am told there is a very
good dancing-master at Leipsig. I would have you dance a minuet very well,
not so much for the sake of the minuet itself (though that, if danced at
all, ought to be danced, well), as that it will give you a habitual
genteel carriage and manner of presenting yourself.</p>
<p>Since I am upon little things, I must mention another, which, though
little enough in itself, yet as it occurs at, least once in every day,
deserves some attention; I mean Carving. Do you use yourself to carve
ADROITLY and genteelly, without hacking half an hour across a bone;
without bespattering the company with the sauce; and without overturning
the glasses into your neighbor's pockets? These awkwardnesses are
extremely disagreeable; and, if often repeated, bring ridicule. They are
very easily avoided by a little attention and use.</p>
<p>How trifling soever these things may seem, or really be in themselves,
they are no longer so when above half the world thinks them otherwise.
And, as I would have you 'omnibus ornatum—excellere rebus', I think
nothing above or below my pointing out to you, or your excelling in. You
have the means of doing it, and time before you to make use of them. Take
my word for it, I ask nothing now but what you will, twenty years hence,
most heartily wish that you had done. Attention to all these things, for
the next two or three years, will save you infinite trouble and endless
regrets hereafter. May you, in the whole course of your life, have no
reason for any one just regret! Adieu.</p>
<p>Your Dresden china is arrived, and I have sent it to your Mamma.</p>
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